Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri and Instagram‘s social media team are denying claims that the app is tracking your location data and sharing it with your followers who can see where you are.
A post that went viral claims that “a recent iOS update” has meant that “people can now see your exact location via Instagram”.
This has prompted many people to go to the Instagram app settings and disable the app’s location permissions.
The Instagram Comms team tweeted about the viral post, clarifying what Instagram’s policies are on location data.
While Adam Mosseri explains that Instagram features allow location tagging in the post, but that the app will never share the user’s location with other people.
A viral Instagram post is not always the most reliable information – you should always do some background checks.
The post in question never mentioned whether this location-sharing feature was Instagram’s work, but instead referred to “a recent iOS update” without any basis.
If you are concerned that the app is using your location, then you need to disable it from the app settings on your device.
iOS and Android both offer approximate location sharing options, and both can record history logs of which apps are accessing location data.